This video is like women's orgasm.

Real or fake, I don't really care.
It's still funny and enjoyable.

Why are we happy?

A better summary of the book below. Comes with light and sound too. Have I posted this before? Can't really remember. The mind IS unreliable.

A happy book that doesn't cheer you up.

Dan Gilbert suggests that humans are unique because we have the ability to imagine, to predict and plan for the future thanks to our highly evolved brain. But the tool is flawed as the brain often jumps to conclusion and constructs unreliable memories by default. (Did I lock my car? I'm not sure. I think I did.)

By applying similar logic, Dan explains further how our perception of happiness is no different. We often don't want the things that make us happy - and the things that we want (more money, bigger house, fancier car, admiration from friends) never do make us happy.

We even "mispredict" how things that we have already experienced will feel when they happen again. The classic example here is childbirth, which women seem to misremember as not being all that bad. We "expect the next car, the next house or the next promotion to make us happy even though the last ones didn't and even though others keep telling us that the next ones won't."

In short, imagination (or projecting ourselves into the future) is the key to our happiness, yet the problem is that we are incapable to imagine correctly.

Despite being published two years ago, it was my best read of the year. If you enjoy the likes of freakonomics and Malcolm Gladwell, give this book a go.

Best brief by the best client in the world.

Link via

WTF Japan? You again?

Ok, it's not entirely the nation's fault but what the hell is Microsoft and BK Japan thinking? How does this appeal to ANY target market? How would this ignite positive brand awareness on Windows 7, when they should've spent the money on spastic cross-promotions to fix this:



On an interesting note, at one stage the anchorwoman asked: "That's not the Chinese version, is it?"
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Nasty.

link via

Emotional purchase.

Did I buy this bag of Heinz peas purely because it has a minimal design with a nice font and semi witty uplifting copy?
Yes I did.
So suck this Today Tonight and A Current Affair, I don't care if the peas are made in Australia.
The packaging is photoshop-free and I can see the actual peas.

Best line: You look like a radioactive tampon.

The only reason I agreed to watch this movie is that I liked the poster design.
The starting plot made my eyes roll: Sam Bell is an astronaut on the moon harvesting helium-3 energy capsule. His only friend is a talking computer(voiced by Kevin Spacey), his three year contract with Lunar Enterprise is ending in 2 weeks and he is starting to hallucinate.
All so cliché plot line, I know, but the movie turned out to be surprisingly intelligent. I won't say original, but it kept me intrigued. There was a point when the projector got split screened, and tohm and I were just wondering if it was intended to be part of the experience.
After this movie and Choke, I really like Sam Rockwell. Oh and he also did Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, didn't he?

I might try to finish my comic strip from 3 years ago. I said 'try'.

我的特異功能。

我有一種特異功能，

不，其實我有兩種。一種是吸引印度男人，讓他們莫名其妙地對我產生興趣，吃我豆腐的能力。我的親友可以證實這點。但我今晚想談的是第二種，所以在此省略。下次有機會再分享。

我的第二種特異功能，是讓女人毫無保留地對我傾訴她們的問題，發泄她們對人生的期望憧憬不滿的天賦。如果你羨慕我的艷遇的話，嘿嘿你搞錯了。還記得《國王的耳朵》這個故事嗎？就是少女發現國王頭上長著驢子耳朵，不得不保守秘密只能在墻上挖個洞往內拼命吶喊的故事。我，頂多只是一面墻。而女人只不過想在我身上挖個洞，發泄她們的不滿，然后隨便用雜草填補它。

我也不想再推測為什么會如此。就算質問女性朋友她們也說不出個所以然。可能我的樣子就是一副無聊的樣子，她們不忍看我無聊，想為我的人生增添樂趣。但天下無聊的男人還是不少吧？我和其他無聊男人又有什么分別呢？總之，最后歸咎于特異功能。天生的，沒辦法。

所以當N突然致電說宴會很無聊，要我當她的“緊急事件"去逛一個小時的街時，我是想拒絕的。但又因為網路掛了一整天，加上她還沒蓋電話就立即按門鈴的咄咄逼人，我投降了。反正廚房需要蔥花和蒜頭。

三十分鐘后，她在咖啡館內抽泣。

這不是我第一次在公共場所和一個哭泣的女人獨處。但我可以肯定，這經驗可以名列“人類最倒霉事件排行榜”前茅。因為無論她哭的原因和你有關與否，就像被發現在兇殺現場與尸體獨處一樣，家人已經認定是你的錯，社會已經認定是你的錯。

就算搬上法院，審判過程也不過如此：

王先生，我的當事人是否在2009年10月16日晚上7時37分和你單獨在阿里山咖啡館？
是。

我們有11位目擊證人證實她當時流了超越人類情緒平衡指數的眼淚，你同意嗎？
同意。

你，是不是淚壩崩潰的主兇？
不是。

那你，知不知道為何我當事人流淚？
不知道。

那也就是說，我的當事人在2009年10月16日晚上在阿里山咖啡館和你，單獨兩人喝著拿鐵和熱可可。在7時37分毫無預兆，毫無保留地心靈受創，淚泉失控，流下了對人體情緒平衡有害的淚水，讓她晶瑩剔透的臉蛋當晚流下了難以磨滅的紫色mascara陰影。而你身為最靠近她的目擊證人的解釋，是你不知道？
因為那時我......

你只需要回答是，或不是。
......是。

包大人，我沒任何問題了。

所以我說，當女人在你面前哭泣，而你們又是在個毫無遮蔽的場所時，認命吧！我當時覺得反正都哭了，很想立即再補多兩巴，或諷刺她下圍下垂什么的， 讓那眼淚值回票價， 對自己也算是一點安慰。

你現在一定很好奇為什么堂堂一個亭亭玉立，沉鱼落雁，闭月羞花的女孩，會在一個俗氣的阿里山咖啡館內，對著一個無聊透頂的我哭泣？

答案還是一樣，我不知道。

我只記得，她在流眼淚前，說了：這咖啡好苦。

沒錯。這咖啡好苦。從邏輯思考的角度來看，是完全合理的。她喝咖啡，覺得好苦，流了眼淚。我甚至可以組個俳句：佳人嘗拿鐵，微澀成淚人。但用常理來判斷，是荒謬的。尤其是她在哭了十分鐘后說：哦，我是時候走了，宴會的同事在等我。然后剝削了我的一包紙巾上路。我也只能對其他11人擺出一副很無奈的表情。

所以我想說的是，多虧了我的特異功能，讓我發現在唐人街的永昌店鋪有很便宜的蒜頭。一袋只需1.50元。超值的。

Bad taste ruins everything.

You know, I gave my benefit of the doubt when spam hit facebook, I really did. I harnessed confidence for the team to fix it, for everyone else to be appreciative enough to tighten their security settings.

Some 3rd degree friend stalked and tried picking up my friend with awe-inspiring broken English, but I decided not to blame the game, I blamed the players.

Yet it was when I received an invitation to change the colour of my facebook page yesterday, to personalized my page, to 'design my own true self', that I realized facebook is now a cross dresser between myspace and friendster.

I get it. I do. With success comes money, with money comes a widened target market, and a broad target market means open source developing and that means anyone can hop on to this monster truck and we are all very familiar with people that would pay to watch 'Outback Thunda vs. The Undertrucker'.

I'm always skeptical when it comes to giving the power of design to the open public. I'm not saying there should be tyranny in design, but surely there has to be guide. If we can't judge subjectively on what's good, at least let us be objective on what's really shit?

Thanks to House and Vignelli, I lean towards the notion of comparing design to treating diseases. Bad design happens when clients read on the internet, they seek double second opinions, they treat doctors like shit, they want to have their own say even though they're the patient. And when the clean sophisticated social network gets polluted with spam, virus, open source ding bat, pink flower wallpapers, they panic and ask for help. That's when the options are limited to a) pull the plug b) not pull the plug.

Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger.

Surely such sarcasm isn't allowed on air?
We need more anchorman with such quality.

The fun theory.

Sometimes you can't argue with fun, even if it's initiated by VW.
Have you done anything fun lately?

A moment of MacGyver.

You know that opening with the blast with the climatic soundtrack 'Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh DAH! Duh duh DAH!' I had one of those yesterday.

I arrived at my friend's apartment lot for a moon cake festival dinner, but failed to remember the apartment number.
I called my friend, who wasn't picking up so I guessed he left his phone somewhere inaudible. (Because why would you avoid someone you invited?)
My bet was either 1804 or 1408. I rang both apartment, and no response from either. I called our common friends. Not one remembered the number. Some had never even been to the place.
I then saw someone coming out, hence I managed to creep in, planning to try both 14th and 18th floor.
Alas, it was one of those apartments which the elevators won't work unless you get buzzed in.
So I was there, sweating profusely. It's been 20 minutes since I arrived and the lady who was waiting for her boyfriend at the foyer was giving me sympathy stare.
Nothing was working except for the unusually strong 3G connection appearing on my phone. And then I had a stroke, of genius.
I logged on to Facebook and accessed my friend's brother's info( I'm still baffled now why I went straight to the brother but not my friend himself).
And sure enough, I found the address and managed to buzz the right apartment and had a non eventful steamboat dinner.

That was probably the brightest moment of the year for me. (The correct number was 1604)

World cinema.

A short film by Joel and Ethan Coen.
It was part of the Chacun son cinéma, a commissioned anthology to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, where 36 directors each made a 3 minute short film.
For some reason, the Coen brothers' didn't make it on DVD and is only available on YouTube.

The internet as random acts of kindness.

After watching this video I somehow felt happier about life.